alphagamer4

Are you going to defend the broken DCS track replays next?

I consider it "cheating" when the AI is allowed to use simple flight models that do NOT conform to the actual flight models which gamers must use, which I would think is painfully obvious. It is no different from an AI that "cheats" when it can see all the units on a battlefield and is NOT limited to the fog of war which gamers are impacted by.

I have TacView Advanced. It's great for tactical analysis (it's intended function) but terrible for creating cinematic gameplay footage from a recorded battle. What is the point of having a track replay if it is incapable of 100% replay accuracy (from either a gameplay or input perspective)? Thanks to the limitations of the DCS Track Replay system, it is nearly impossible to record cinematic footage of a air duel after the fact. And it is close to impossible to create such recorded cinematic footage "live" as the battle plays out the first time around (at least, not if you do not want to get shot down). I experienced the opposite. With an average of 190 fps in-game, my DCS track replays did not turn out accurate at all.

Please give gamers the option to turn OFF CHEATING AI in DCS. It was amusing at first to watch a Rookie-level MiG 15 out-fly and down an Ace-level F-14B in an user-created mission. But after watching the Rookie-level MiG 15 defy the laws of physics and limitations of its own aircraft design to win 19 out of 20 duels with the Ace-level F-14B, it is getting ridiculous. Especially for a game like DCS that prides itself on being a "study-sim" and "realistic to a degree". EDIT: Here is how I would position the DCS AI: ROOKIE = Obeys laws of physics and airframe's flight model. VETERAN = ROOKIE + ability to conduct BFM maneuvers. ACE = ROOKIE + VETERAN + ability to conduct advanced BFM maneuvers. You get the idea. Each higher level of AI skill builds upon the previous levels. But to Dragon's point, the AI MUST obey the laws of physics and the airframe's flight model. Anything less is the AI cheating.

Your point is well taken! At least I got this game at a discount (as opposed to spending $5000 on just one starship). I am disappointed that the DCS replay track system is broken and hasn't been fixed yet though, despite many gamers reporting this.

I'm new to DCS. I believe it's an outstanding flight sim. But my perspective on the game took a major hit when I loaded up a REPLAY track and discovered to my horror that the replay does not reflect my actual gameplay (i.e. I crashed in the replay when I did not in the original playthrough). For a game like DCS with its relatively high price points, the lack of a fully functional replay track is an embarrassment. After conducting a due diligence, I was surprised to learn that this replay bug has been around for years, not months or even days, but years. In light of this, I cannot recommend this game to my friends or colleagues in good conscience. The devs should know better. The devs should be better. Do your customers and community better and fix the broken replay system once and for all. Thank you.

@Bailey - Having set up basic commands myself for Star Wars Squadrons, I am extremely impressed with the detailed work that you did for all these DCS airframes (especially Jester and the F-14). Thank you for sharing all your complex scripting work with us.

This is amazing. You are so talented!

Well stated, friend. I can confirm that spotting in IL2 Sturmovik is much more reasonable now. Agreed. In my perspective, I will always be in favor of changes that promote accessibility among gamers, not restrict it. The cost of DCS is already prohibitive enough for many gamers (not to mention the peripherals needed to enhance one's experience and competitiveness). The last thing we need is to make things more difficult for gamers (within reason).

Thanks for the tip, friend. I think it's probably too late for me to leave Steam, given that I just spent $680 on Steam to acquire almost $1200 worth of DCS products (see my signature). I really do love the Steam Winter Sales. I like keeping as many of my PC games in 1 place (DRM) as possible. Steam is great about refunds, especially when it comes to holding questionable game devs accountable for releasing poorly-performing products. Not too worried about Steam and VR since I'm not interested in VR at the moment (it's too blurry for my tastes). Even though my PC can run the Syria map just fine (i7-8700K @5GHz CPU with 32GB RAM; EVGA RTX 3080 GPU), I still do not believe it is as optimized yet as it could be. I believe it will get better optimized in time. Maybe Steam will have it on sale at that point as well.

To your point, I think gamers are changing as a whole. While I can certainly understand your frustration to see a game that you spent $1,000+ on changed against your wishes, there are others who also spent $1,000+ who welcome these accessibility changes (for instance, like myself). I don't mind spending hours to learn an aircraft's systems and control ecosystem. I do mind having to squint to make out objects. So I'm grateful that there are now dots that I can finally see.

I bought my DCS products on Steam. Just to clarify, I think the Syria map will be amazing when it's finished and optimized. Just not there yet while it's at full price (on Steam) in my opinion.

I thought the Syria map was nice but could use some improvement. The same could be said for the F-16 module. So, I would recommend going with the F-16 module since it's on sale and the Syria map is not.

I am going to share my perspective in a brief post. I believe there is room to compromise when it comes to realism and accessibility in DCS. I believe the realism can be maintained via the detailed cockpits / study-sim aspects of DCS while still allowing greater accessibility to gamers by making targets easier to see. While I do not mind playing DCS in a singleplayer format, I think making DCS more accessible to gamers in a reasonable manner via making targets easier to see (especially in VR) is a good thing from a multiplayer perspective. It welcomes more gamers to the fold, increases the number of customers for ED, etc. Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that we make DCS "call of duty" friendly. Simply stating that DCS is a game, not real life.

I was hooked on DCS thanks to the recent DCS play-for-free event on Steam. So much so that I bought 31 modules / campaigns / maps / asset packs for roughly $680. Thanks to the Steam Winter Sale, I saved roughly $450 (40% discount). The only product that I wanted but did not buy was the Syria Map. Apparently, there is more work to be done on it and it wasn't on sale. I also ended up buying TacView Advanced Edition since it was bundled with Command: Modern Operations (another game that I am interested in playing). Definitely looking forward to learning all these aircraft over the next decade or so!